Burned out parents, burned out kids
February 5, 2010
“Parents who complain of feeling burned out at work are more likely to have kids who are burned out at school.” 1
Last month I posted research about stress becoming a top health concern for teens in the U.S. Last week NY Times reporter Tara Parker-Pope shared about a study in Finland that revealed that burnout tends to run in families. This is particularly true between mothers burnt out at work and their teen daughters burnt out at school.
On some level this seems intuitive, but for us who are parents, how much do we pretend or hope that our stress and even burnout won’t impact our kids? Perhaps we’re fooling ourselves to think that’s possible. And on the flip side, how could our own self-care practices prevent burnout—both for us and for our kids?
For more on stress and burnout, check out this resource we put together last year for urban youth workers with the help of Dr. Jude Tiersma Watson and Kimberly Williams.
©2010 Fuller Youth Institute